Emarketer recently came out with its predictions for 2007. Here are the highlights;

Online ad spending will top $20 billion, an increase of almost 20% from 2006.
Online video advertising will see a dramatic upturn.
Social Networking sites will see $1billion worth of advertising dollars.
Positive word of mouth advertising will become increasingly important for retailers.

The trends are clear. Companies will spend more and embrace all new technologies available in order to grab a larger piece of an ever growing online sales pie. The early adopters will see the largest gains.

In a recent development, it seems that internet marketing companies have started spamming social media sites such as Digg in an effort to gain better position on search engines. Digg is a social bookmarking site that gives people the opportunity to share their favorite blogs, articles and websites with others. A vote for a website however, can have a significant economic impact if this vote influences search position, so it is not surprising that marketers would want to manipulate the process. Social Media Optimization appears to be the new “SEO” and as such will present tremendous opportunity for marketers. It will also improve search engines as the technology continues to evolve and the internet continues to provide a better user experience.